The idea of Leadership

Leadership
in my opinion and simply stated is the choice to serve a need you happen to
notice because you noticed and could do something to fill that need.

The only ego
driven part of being a leader is in identifying that you do in fact possess
the ability to serve this need you noticed.

There is a
story I like to use that to me illustrates what it means to see oneself as a
King or Queen in your own life.

The term landlord comes from the term Lord of the
Land and the Lord cared for the people who cared for the land and saw to
their needs. The Lord of the Lords or the King cared for the Lords as he cared
for the people. Most people don’t realize that the true king never sits on
a throne nor does he wear a crown.

He is wandering his kingdom and finding those who
have a need he can fulfill. As he helps these people, he gets to know them
and he gets to see how it is they came to have this need. The king is a wise
man and as he gets the full story he can see if these people live by the
king’s law.

If the king found these to be good people,
then something wonderful would happen after he left. If these people were in
foul of the king’s law, something horrible would happen after he left.

Either way no one ever really knew who
the king was and that was his power.

If you knew you were in the presence of the king,
you would put your best foot forward and make sure you were doing
everything right, but that is not a fair look for the king.

There are two
points to this story.

The first is
to always be doing what you know you should, because you never know who
is walking by and second, the king’s subjects do not serve the king, the
king serves his subjects.

You over hear
conversations all the time, what makes you think no one over hears
your conversations. “Oh, but that was just between us and no one had the
right to be listening.”

Does saying or
thinking that ever change the result?

Why do we get
mad at the cop for catching us?

Why do we get
mad when getting caught by anyone?

Why do we
think it was OK for us and yet will condemn others for similar behavior?

Why do we
think authority and leadership have anything to do with each other?

To have
authority in my opinion is to have the function of enforcing a set of rules or
laws.

It has
nothing to do with being a leader.

It can have
aspects of leadership in the performance of the function, however
authority is not the equivalent of leadership.

What are the
behavioral traits of leadership?

What does
leadership look like in living action?

There are
traits that define a leader and they are traits that are visible in the actions
and attitudes of any true leader.

It begins with
the acknowledgment that a leader’s first duty is to identify the needs of
the people and serve those needs until the goal is accomplished.

There are
times that a leader will need to make sacrifices in order to meet the needs of
the people who are taking care of the greater needs.

It is by the
example that is set by the leader that the people follow.

Every true
leader understands that not even the King or the Queen is above the law,
they exemplify it.

No one ever
has to question what a leader is doing, they see it in their actions and
their attitudes and they operate with transparency.

A leader has
nothing to hide and everything to share in order to provide for the greater
needs.
The key word for me when thinking about leadership is “need.”

What need does
what I'm doing serve?

To understand
leadership one must understand the difference between need and desire
or want.

One must be
willing to give up want or desire in favor of need.

One must allow
for want and desire to be fulfilled, but never at the expense of the needs
of others.

Think of it as
when you were a kid and tried to tell your parents you needed that thing
and you know it was a want, not a need.

In exploring
leadership from a spiritual view I looked at different teachings and how
they applied in the view of living the concept.

When I hit the
Wicca concept of do no harm, I laughed my ass off. Here's why.

Take a minute
to think about the harm done over the course of existence so you could wake up
today.

Even in
filling needs, harm gets done. A leader evaluates the harm to be done by
filling the need versus the harm done in allowing the need to go unfulfilled.

How much
environmental harm do we do to drive?

The scarring
of the earth to get the materials to build it.

The pollution
in manufacturing the oil to have fuel to power it.

The pollution
from driving it.

The scarring
of the earth to provide roads for driving.

That is one
common item in society currently.

Look around
and think about where these things come from and find the harm we do to
fulfill our wants as well and our needs and we often blur the line between
the two to feel OK about it.

A leader never
blurs the line and calls it as it is.

The leaders
interest is in what is best for the sum, not the some.

Being a leader
is not a function, it is a mode of life.

Leadership is
not associated with title it is the quality of the walk of your talk. The
people we call leaders are closer to being authorities.

We authorize
them to decide what's best for us and trust them to act with leadership in
the best interest of the sum.

That is the
simplest explanation of every form of government or political structure I could
give.

We give the
authority to others to govern over us.

We show how we
lead ourselves by the type of governance we allow and the authorities to
enforce that governance we allow to be and stay in place.

We follow
authorities in the form of our governments and the men and women we give title and
authority to that make up those governments.

There is
nothing that shows being a government authority makes you a leader.

Being a leader
is a mode of living and anyone can be and many are leaders without title or
authority.

Bravo! I like specially what you said about doing harm. Indeed, when we stop to scrutinize every little thing we do, it's easy to see just how much responsibility we have (regardless of position, as you put it).